Granular silicon is used, for example, for making silicon ingots, which subsequently are sliced into silicon wafers. The granular silicon is required to have a very high purity. However, granular silicon presents technical challenges in the characterization of its material properties. These challenges increase the characterization cost, which in turn increases the production cost. For example, determining product variability is particularly challenging when dealing with very high purity materials, such as electronic-grade silicon. Present methods of characterizing granular material may not produce meaningful results and/or may be prohibitively expensive. Thus, there is a need for a reliable, relatively rapid, cost-effective method for characterizing granular silicon.